Odoo vs Zoho vs Microsoft : Building Odoo into a 433 million dollar company? : IBP EP12
Executive Summary
Odoo founder Fabien Pinckaers talks with Ganesh Prasad about building business software for small and mid-sized companies, watching users to find wasted work, avoiding competitor-driven thinking, and marketing through free educational events. The host says Odoo sponsors Think School, so this is a commercially interested conversation, and sponsor pitches are not treated as recommendations. Coverage comes from approximately the first 50,000 characters of third-party captions, not the full interview; the unseen ending is not summarized. Growth, event and conversion figures are the guest's claims and not independently checked. Captions contain errors and no named speakers; attribution follows the exchange. Topics are untimed; metadata follows YouTube. Source: https://youtubetotranscript.com/transcript?v=CA-qqh5_g0c
Key Takeaways
Start with the wasted work, not the competitor
Pinckaers says he did not think about competing with large enterprise software vendors. He wanted to fix the time small companies waste on administration and repeated data entry. His account puts a customer problem ahead of a market comparison.
Sit next to the user and watch
He says his method is to sit beside employees and see where time goes, for example a recruiter spending half their email on scheduling meetings or an accountant typing vendor bills all day. Observation showed him what could be automated. This is his description of how his team found product ideas.
Build for every employee, not only managers
Pinckaers says early on the company decided management software is not for managers, and aimed to make each employee, from cashier to accountant, more efficient. Dashboards for managers come after. The idea is to measure a tool by the people who use it daily.
Fill the gap between complex and simple tools
He describes large enterprise systems as too complex and rigid for smaller firms, and single-purpose tools as not connected. His intended gap is a broad product that is simple and affordable. This is a claim about his market, from a company that has a commercial interest.
Start with a niche and iterate
Pinckaers says the first customers were auction houses and antique dealers, where better inventory handling cut how often a product was moved. He then iterated for years across more use cases. A narrow starting market can teach you what to build next.
Let happy users be the marketing
He says the best marketing is no marketing, meaning a good product, service and follow-up that makes customers bring others. He also says the company avoids logo sponsorships and traditional advertising. Treat that as his stated strategy, not proof this works for every company.
Educate through events rather than pitching
Pinckaers describes about 80 events a year in India and a two-day free community event with around 200 sessions and demos in real time. He says the partner network doubled within two months of the previous event and that 20 to 30 percent of registrants may convert. These are his figures.
The Conversation Breakdown
Start with the wasted work, not the competitor
⏱ Untimed topicPinckaers says he did not think about competing with large enterprise software vendors. He wanted to fix the time small companies waste on administration and repeated data entry. His account puts a customer problem ahead of a market comparison.
Sit next to the user and watch
⏱ Untimed topicHe says his method is to sit beside employees and see where time goes, for example a recruiter spending half their email on scheduling meetings or an accountant typing vendor bills all day. Observation showed him what could be automated. This is his description of how his team found product ideas.
Build for every employee, not only managers
⏱ Untimed topicPinckaers says early on the company decided management software is not for managers, and aimed to make each employee, from cashier to accountant, more efficient. Dashboards for managers come after. The idea is to measure a tool by the people who use it daily.
Fill the gap between complex and simple tools
⏱ Untimed topicHe describes large enterprise systems as too complex and rigid for smaller firms, and single-purpose tools as not connected. His intended gap is a broad product that is simple and affordable. This is a claim about his market, from a company that has a commercial interest.
Start with a niche and iterate
⏱ Untimed topicPinckaers says the first customers were auction houses and antique dealers, where better inventory handling cut how often a product was moved. He then iterated for years across more use cases. A narrow starting market can teach you what to build next.
Let happy users be the marketing
⏱ Untimed topicHe says the best marketing is no marketing, meaning a good product, service and follow-up that makes customers bring others. He also says the company avoids logo sponsorships and traditional advertising. Treat that as his stated strategy, not proof this works for every company.
Educate through events rather than pitching
⏱ Untimed topicPinckaers describes about 80 events a year in India and a two-day free community event with around 200 sessions and demos in real time. He says the partner network doubled within two months of the previous event and that 20 to 30 percent of registrants may convert. These are his figures.
Core Frameworks & Ideas
Observe users at work - discussed method
Sit with real users, note where time is lost on repeated manual steps, and decide what could be automated.
Simple and complete - guest's positioning
Aim between rigid enterprise systems and single-task tools: broad enough to cover the work, simple and affordable enough for small firms.
Educate to convert users into fans - marketing lens
Free events and demos that teach something can build trust; the guest says this helped grow the partner network.
Actionable Next Steps
- ✓Shadow one employee for an hour and list the repeated manual tasks.
- ✓Check which of your tools make everyday workers faster, not just managers.
- ✓Write what a first-time attendee would learn from your content before they buy.
- ✓Ask whether your marketing teaches something useful on its own.
Notable Quotes
“I want to do something useful”
“the best marketing is actually no marketing”
“management software is not for managers”
The One Thing to Remember
Find the repeated manual work people hate and build something useful that removes it.